Islam Times - Recently Bloomberg reported that the Federal Reserve – which is privately owned and not “Federal” at all – gave banks $13 billion undisclosed to Congress...

Bloomberg reported that as of March 2009, the Fed lent, spent, or committed $7.77 trillion worth of aid to the banks which used that money to make an estimated $13 billion in income.

In reality, the Fed gave $29.616 trillion in emergency assistance to shadowy foreign and domestic institutes in response to the most recent global economic crises caused by the rampant fraud and greed by Wall Street and friends. $29 trillion is more than the entire U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) - the value of goods and services produced for the year 2010 (link: http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/153462).

A detailed look at the Fed’s shady Wall Street shenanigans can be found at the Levy Economics Institute (link: http://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/?docid=1462). The totals of the Fed’s felonious actions amount to $29,616 trillion over the past three years to prop-up – read manipulate – domestic and international banks, shadow banks (think Bank of America), central banks and some non-financial institutions.

Egregious Depths of Deception Perpetrated Against the U.S. Public

Of the $29 trillion, only $3,818.41 billion is consistent with the Fed’s mandate to protect the commercial banking system from systemic failure. The remaining balance of the $29 trillion was given by the Fed to protect or rescue the shadow banking sector that has bankrupt the U.S. and a multitude of other countries. The shadow banking sector, which isn’t regulated or supervised by the Fed, was responsible for much of the fraud that led to the most recent global financial crises, yet the Fed devoted more than $29 trillion to it.

$29 trillion is a lot larger than the amounts previously reported. The Levy Economic Institute’s analysis connects the dots, is more in-depth, and it identifies measures by the Fed that transcend its “lender of last resort” (LOLR) claims (link: http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/153462). Unsurprisingly, the Fed’s actions were not transparent. They were done secretly, with no intention of making its felonious actions public, and the public had no say in the process.

Levy’s analysis reveals a glimpse of the egregious depths of deception perpetrated against the U.S. public. Further analysis of the Fed’s felonious actions is needed to see exactly who benefitted from the $29 trillion the Fed gave Wall Street and friends. Who got funds from the Fed? How much did they get? More importantly, why did they get them?

Wall Street's housing bubble burst almost five years ago and the shadow banking sector caused the global economic recession four years ago and we’re still in a prolonged recession. Wall Street and friends have been bailed out repeatedly at American taxpayer expense, so how's the bailout working for you? There are currently 6.6 million fewer jobs today in the U.S. that there were four years ago (link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/23-7). An estimated 23 million Americans who want to work full time can't find a job. Millions of people have been unemployed long term and wages of a typical American household are at lower levels than they were in 1997, but the bailout has worked out very well for Wall Street and friends.

The Economy hasn’t Recovered and the Job Situation is Bleak

Back in 2008 when George W. Bush and Barack Obama were engineering the $700 billion bail out to rescue the banks responsible for the current financial crises, we were told that if banks were handed money without limits and conditions that the economy would recover -- banks would lend money and more jobs would be created. The fraudsters running the banks told us that in addition to saving them, their shadowy banking systems and their shareholders, saving their creditors would return the U.S. economy to where it was before the economy imploded. Bailing out Wall Street and friends would tide the U.S. economy over until the banks could recover from the financial devastations they had caused.

Banks got their bail out. Fraudulent bankers got their bonuses. Little of the bailout money was used for lending to the American public that had bailed the banks out. The economy hasn't recovered, and in fact, is getting worse and the U.S. job situation is bleak. Bush and Obama lied. Bankers didn't mend their ways -- they only embezzled more and only looked out for themselves while continuing their ongoing fraud and deception.

Helping banks that destroyed the economy isn't the answer. Ending the shadow banking system and holding the "too big to fail" banks accountable while making them manageable is required, but America still needs to fix its economy and the lop-sided, economic policies that have failed us for several decades. As noted by Joseph E. Stiglitz, bringing the economy back to "where it was" does nothing to address the underlying problems (link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/23-7). Because of the lies espoused by the Fed in its collusion with Washington and Wall Street, the parallels between the Great Depression and the crises we face today are strong and it’s time to fix the financial system while we can.